I feel uncomfortable around the internet variety of certain groups?

By certain groups, I mean as in certain religious groups, nationalities, ethnic groups, dietary choice people, etc.

I do not have any racist, sexist, xenophobic, or otherwise discriminatory attitudes towards any groups when interacting with people in real life. I have friends of different races, sexes and religions, and I have vegetarian friends too. When IRL, I am no more discriminatory than the average person.

However, when interacting with certain groups of people online, I tend to have a lot of prejudged feelings when spending time around certain groups of people and tend to stay away from discussion with some of them. For example, I live in a Christian community and the Christians I talk to on an average basis are generally level headed and open minded. However, I tend to avoid most Christian groups online because they tend to be populated by the most gullible, intolerant, ignorant and shallow individuals. While I also know quite a few atheists offline and have no problem with atheists in general, I make an effort to avoid most atheist communities because I figure they often turn into a huge narcissistic circlejerk. While I myself have concern about certain animal issues and I know vegetarian and vegans who are nice people, I tend to avoid most discussions about animal issues and vegetarianism because they tend to fill up with overly emotional people who are vicious and hateful to anything but animals. I tend to have prejudge against certain ethnic communities online not because I hate them, but such internet discussion communities tend to be filled with the supremacists of their respective races.

Basically, I do not have any racist/discriminatory attitudes towards certain races, religious groups or nationalities as a whole. However, I tend to get such feelings around the internet variety of such groups. It's not that I think that everyone of that race/religion/etc. that uses the internet is like that, but I tend to assume that the ones that are more active on the internet are the lowest common denominator of their group (i.e. the vocal minority), and that the average everyday members (i.e. the silent majority) generally don't spend too much time online. Again, I'm not saying that all of the members of a specific group that are active online are the vocal minority, but I tend to avoid such areas with the same motive of avoiding an extremely dangerous ghetto: Most of the people there are just good everyday folk, but if you walk around long enough you're probably going to get sacked by the gangsters (who are actually not truly representative of the people in the ghetto but they're the predominant voice).

Is this normal?

Is It Normal?
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Comments ( 5 ) Sort: best | oldest
  • I guess so. It kind of seems like there are people like that in any group. They treat the topic like a pissing contest. Their insecurities are loud in how they want their opinions to dominate. Be thankful you recognize it and may avoid being the same way.

    It's on this site too. But here the pissing contest seems to be about who is giving the wisest of the wise advice.

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  • The internet is full of freaks and weirdos, but so is real life.

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  • "...and I have vegetarian friends too."

    aaaaaaahahahahaha!! Sorry, I laughed so hard at that, I didn't even read further :)

    So you mean to tell me that vegetarians are people too? :P

    This obviously is funnier in my head than what it seems in this comment.

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  • there are a lot of extremists on the internet but also in real life . The difference online , the people are not scared to be themselves even if it means being ignorant or idiotic since they are behind a screen . I don't understand the whole race thing but honestly , who even knows who is behind the screen or why they act the way they do . I don't think it's to do with race or what not I just think that's who they are . I didn't fully grasp what you were asking since it was very long but if I understand right you prefer to deal with certain people in real life because the same sorts on the net are too extreme and it doesn't translate into what you come online for ? I think someone else may have better advice for this one . I don't see why you care who is online though , it's easy enough to avoid them .

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